A new branch of UX is emerging: Experience Strategy.

Описание: Here’s some exciting news! A new branch of UX is emerging: experience strategy.

Experience strategy is an executive-level approach to UX. Experience strategists integrate their organization’s critical objectives with the delivery of great user experiences.

I’m excited to see this new branch. It’s making me very optimistic for the future of UX.

Experience strategists answer this question: How would improving the lives of our customers, users, and employees advance the achievement of my organization’s top priorities and goals?

I don’t see anyone else asking this question, despite its importance.

Today’s experience strategists make a direct connection between increased user value and top business objectives. Their work attracts the attention of their senior stakeholders and executives.

The executives see how they boost their own success by making serious investments in better UX, which, in turn, strengthens the org’s industry-leading position by delivering innovative products and services.

Here’s the thing: you can look all you want, but you won’t find anyone with the title of “experience strategist.” It’s just a label I made up. Yet, these folks definitely exist.

They often go by UX titles of senior designer or researcher, or maybe they have titles that say they are a lead, staff, or principal. Some titles may even have the word strategist.

Whatever they call themselves, they’re doing experience strategy work. Unlike others in UX, this work is at the highest levels of the organization, on the most critical priorities.

The experience strategists I have met work collaboratively, orchestrating the entire organization to make significant improvements in the lives of customers, users, and the associates who support them. This work differs from that of others in UX, such as designers, researchers, and content specialists, who focus on incremental improvements to the organization’s products and services.

Experience strategists choose their next project based on the org’s highest priorities. Their contributions map directly to what the executives are most interested in.

I think this will be a big year for experience strategists, and for the UX field as a whole. We need more senior leaders in our UX work, and experience strategy seems like a sound approach to getting them.

That so many folks are already having success doing just that bodes very well for our field. Experience strategy is making me very optimistic for what’s coming.

o - o - o -

Are you as excited about this emerging role of Experience Strategist as I am? Are you thinking that you might like to explore what it would take to become an experience strategist?

I’ve set aside time in my calendar to talk with folks, just like you, about what a future journey to becoming an experience strategist might be like. If you’d like, you and I could discuss where your career and work are at and, together, brainstorm what the right path for you might be.

I do teach some courses that equip students with the skills that experience strategists find valuable — that’s how I met all the folks who have made this journey so far. However, that’s not the point of what we’d talk about when you and I meet. Instead, we’ll dive into your situation to explore all the options.

If the courses make sense, we can talk about them, but if not, we can talk about whatever you’d like instead.

If you’re interested in spending 30 minutes with me to talk this through, at no cost other than your time, pop me a message on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/jmspool/), Bluesky (@jmspool.bsky.social), or in our Leaders of Awesomeness community, which you can find at UXLeaders.CC. I’ll send you a link to find a time on my calendar, and we’ll hop on a call.

I look forward to talking to you and brainstorming on how you might become an experience strategist in your organization.